Officers with ECOMOG's intervention force in Sierra
Leone told IRIN today (Monday) that recent attacks
near the capital, Freetown, were no threat to the city.

An ECOMOG officer confirmed an earlier news agency report
quoting Brigadier General Maxwell Khobe as saying the
recent attacks near Masiaka, 96 km east of Freetown,
and Lunsar, 80 km northeast of the capital, were isolated
events. "They sneak into a place and then disappear,"
AFP quoted Khobe, a Nigerian who is Sierra Leone's
defence chief, as saying.

AFP also quoted Khobe as saying that ECOMOG needed another
5,000 troops and between US $25 million and $35 million
to defeat the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and
its ousted military junta allies. But ECOMOG officers
could not immediately confirm these figures.

Serious food shortages by the middle of 1999 - Bertini

Sierra Leone will experience serious food shortages
by mid-1999 unless peace returns, World Food Programme
Executive Director Catherine Bertini said in Freetown
on Saturday. In a report today, the country's Ministry
of Information quoted Bertini as saying this year's
harvest was likely to be good but "there could
be problems" by the next.

Reuters reported that before the May 1997 coup that
ousted President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the government
had predicted the attainment of self-sufficiency in
rice by 2001. But the rebels have been mutilating the
rural population, hacking off people's arms and legs
and sending survivors fleeing to towns, making farming
difficult.

Bertini said rebel attacks in the north and east of
the country last week had increased tension in the
capital, Freetown, and that a camp for some 12,000
IDPs in Waterloo, about 25 km south of Freetown, was
empty. Although Freetown was bustling with activity,
she added, there as "underlying tension".

Bertini said her visit was, in part, to raise morale
among WFP employees, particularly local staff, whose
security situation was worrying, the ministry said.
It said she also visited the towns of Bo, Gerihun and
Blama and WFP officials said they saw no signs of fighting
during the trip.

Twenty-two civilians to face treason trial

Another 22 civilians appeared in court on Friday charged
with treason for helping the military junta that ousted
Kabbah in May 1997, news agencies reported. Reuters
said that no plea was taken and the accused would appear
in court again on 18 December. In another development,
AFP reported that a government-appointed committee
at the weekend recommended the release of at least
30 other civilians suspected of collaborating with
the junta. The committee said it was unable to find
"any evidence of connivance" with the junta,
AFP said quoting state radio.

GUINEA: Tight security for elections

Voting in Guinea's presidential elections was reported
calm today following a weekend of pre-poll clashes
in the capital, Conakry, a diplomatic source told IRIN.
He said voters had been queuing to cast their ballots
since the polling booths opened at 8 a.m. in a calm
and relaxed atmosphere. The source added that joint
military-police units were patrolling various neighbourhoods
in Conakry to ensure law and order. He added that by
early afternoon no violent incidents had been reported
in the capital or interior of the country.

An official of the International Federation of the Red
Cross (IFRC) in Conakry told IRIN today that 125 Guinean
Red Cross volunteers who had monitored the voting confirmed
that election day went smoothly with no incidents to
report.

The government announced on Saturday the closure of
all land borders, airports, and seaports, while armed
soldiers took up positions in Conakry. It also announced
measures to defuse tension by allowing people on the
electoral list who were not issued registration cards
to vote if they had the required identity papers. Reuters
said the issue of voter cards was the most contentious
of the campaign. The opposition called last week for
the vote to be put back, saying that less than half
the voters had received cards.

Meanwhile, Guineans residing in Abidjan, the capital
of Cote d'Ivoire, were able to cast their vote, a Guinean
diplomatic source told IRIN today. An estimated one
million Guineans live in Cote d'Ivoire. According to
AFP, most Guineans living outside the country tend
to support the opposition.

Violence erupted on Saturday when fighting between rival
parties in Conakry forced the police to intervene with
tear gas, news organisations reported. The clashes
erupted in an opposition stronghold in Conakry between
rival parties armed with machetes and stones. Reuters
reported that state television showed footage of cars
with their windscreens smashed and wounded people in
hospitals. Residents said shops were looted in several
heavily populated districts.

The diplomatic source told IRIN that the campaigning
had been generally peaceful and the Saturday incident
was "an isolated event triggered off by street
boys and over-zealous opposition supporters".

GUINEA BISSAU: President and rebel leader arrive for
Togo talks

Guinea Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira and rebel
leader Ansumane Mane were due to begin talks today
(Monday) in Lome, the Togolese capital, aimed at implementing
a peace accord signed early November in Nigeria, the
Togolese Foreign Ministry told IRIN.

Mane and Guinea Bissau Prime Minister Francisco Fadul
arrived on Sunday. Nigerian leader General Abdulsalami
Abubakar has also arrived for the talks arranged by
Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who is the chairman
of the Economic Community of West African States.

The main issues on the table are the appointment of
ministers to the government of national unity and the
deployment of ECOMOG troops in Guinea Bissau, as envisaged
under the Abuja peace deal signed in the Nigerian capital.
Nigeria provides the leadership and the bulk of ECOMOG
troops, whose units are currently active in Sierra
Leone.

NIGERIA: By-elections and run-offs held on Friday

Run-off and by-elections were held in 98 local government
council areas last week Friday marking the end of the
local government elections in Nigeria, according to
a state-run television station in Lagos. The Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) will now compile
the final results to determine which of the nine provisionally
registered parties qualify to compete in the next round
of polls for state assemblies. A party qualifies for
final registration if it clinched at least five percent
of the vote in 24 states out of 36. The first round
of the local government elections took place on 5 December.

GABON: Opposition calls for strike action to protest
election results

The presidential runner-up and opposition leader, Pierre
Mamboundou, accused supporters of President Omar Bongo
of rigging the 6 December presidential poll and vowed
to challenge the results with strikes and court action,
news agencies reported over the weekend. Reuters quoted
Mamboundou as calling for a "ghost town"
protest, meaning a stay at home action, the first stage
of a "graduated response to the second electoral
coup d'etat". Speaking at a news conference,
he said the opposition rejected the results announced
by the interior ministry and would not "recognise
the government that emerges from this process".
He added that he would urge the constitutional court
to scrap the poll.

Bongo's spokesman Andre M'ba Obame retorted that: "The
campaign was of high quality and the Gabonese showed
maturity and serenity which can only add credibility
to the Gabonese political system," Reuters said.
Foreign electoral observers said the election, despite
its shortcomings, was free and fair.

Mamboundou, leader of the Haut conseil de resistance
(HCR), clinched 16.54 percent of the vote, while Bongo
won 66.6 percent. The 1993 polls were also hotly contested
by the opposition and triggered violent incidents.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, speaking yesterday
(Sunday) at the Opening session of a three-day OAU
ministerial conference in Khartoum, warned that Africa's
refugee problem was an "imminent catastrophe,"
while international assistance was diminishing, news
agencies reported. In his opening address, OAU chairman
and Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, deploring
the number of armed conflicts on the continent, called
on Africans to "return to reason, respect human
rights and protect minorities," news agencies
said. Delegates from 45 African countries are attending
the meeting, aimed at finding durable solutions to
the problem of refugees, returnees and displaced persons
on the continent.

LIBERIA: Government releases 32 inmates

In a bid to spruce up its human rights image the Liberian
government has released 32 inmates, Justice Minister
Eddington Varmah said, independent Star Radio reported
at the weekend. It quoted Varmah as saying that the
government intended to adopt other measures to improve
the criminal justice system.

IDPs unable to return home

Nearly 11,000 IDPs are unable to return to their homes
in Liberia because the government has not provided
any money for their repatriation, the head of the Liberian
Refugee Repatriation Commission, Adezana Kullu, has
said, according to a report today by Star Radio. Most
of the IDPs are from grand Geddeh County, home region
of former minister Roosevelt Johnson. President Charles
Taylor had ordered refugees and IDPs out the capital
by the end of this year. However, humanitarian agencies
estimated in July that by the end of the civil war
more than 130,000 IDPs had crowded around Monrovia
and were unable to go home because there was little
or no infrastructure outside the capital.